“The bottom line is it doesn’t really matter what it’s labeled, because the reality is that people have problems and many times these problems aren’t labeled or classified, but we in our offices see these problems every day.”

I’ve said this before and I’m just going to say it again: It is irrelevant whether we call it digital dependence, video game addiction, or bug-eye syndrome. Many people have problems with digital games that need to be addressed. Period.

On another note: Thomas just finished speaking at the CHEACT book fair where he addressed home schoolers on the dangers created by digital gaming. You can view last year’s workshop by clicking the “video” tab above.

Instead, I am going to talk about what is often (very academically) termed a “chicken and egg dilemma:” Are compulsive, addiction-prone people just drawn to video games or do the video games themselves actually promote addiction?

To answer this question, we’re going to trek down a road often fraught with boredom; we’re going to look at research. But, if you’re willing to stick with it and at least read the major parts of this post, you just might even get some great information and maybe even a fresh perspective. What do you have to loose? Two minutes?

Empirical?

Now using that word sure makes me feel scientific. No; we’re probably not going to conclusively prove that gaming is an addiction any time soon. But then again, we probably can’t conclusively probe that gravity exists, either.

The fact of the matter is that there is enough evidence to say that playing games often leads to playing more games, and ultimately addiction.

Making the link.

Nicholas Yee is now one of the foremost experts on MMORPG games (Isn’t that a weird acronym? See my endnote.). In the early days of his massive online surveys from the Daedalus Project, he performed studies relating to addiction. His report “Adiadne” on the subject revealed a very telling relationship. I referenced the study in my last post, but here’s some of the major points:

• 65% of these gamers (ages 12-17) would label themselves as addicted to the game. (Yee 2002, 3)
• 60% of gamers have played 10 hours non-stop.
• About half of young MMORPG players (ages 12-22) admit to loosing sleep in order to play the game. (Yee 2002, 2)

Another study was released in ’05 which confirmed these findings. Ng and Wiemer-Hastings, from DePaul University’s Computer Science Department, performed a study showing that:

• MMORPG players play significantly longer. (see graph)
• 80% of MMORPG players have played 8 hours straight, while only 46% of Non-MMORPG gamers have. (Ng and Wiemer-Hastings 2005, 112)
• 35% of MMORPG gamers find it easier to talk to people in the game than those in real life. (Ng and Wiemer-Hastings 2005, 113)

These number are great; they point us to a specific conclusion: people who play certain games (MMORPGs in specific) tend to be more addicted to them. If you’re really attentive, then you’ve also noticed several problems. Let’s play Blue’s Clues! Can you spot them? No; I’m just kidding. It’s just fine if you didn’t notice any problems, I’ll go into them in just a second!

Problem 1: Date

Yep. These studies are a little… well, old. Yee’s study was done six years ago, which means that some of the high schoolers he polled now have Master’s degrees. The Ng and Wiemer-Hastings study, on the other hand, is only about three years old, so it’s good for verifying that Yee’s studies still hold true. However, there is another problem that plagues Ng’s results.

Problem 2: Quantity

Both of these studies are surveys, which means they rely on quantity rather than quality. Yee did an exceptional job of getting a large number of respondents. That’s one of the reasons he’s a top expert. Yee consistently has about three to four thousand participants in his surveys.

Ng and Wiemer-Hastings are computer scientists, not psychiatrists. They only got 91 respondents. Now that’s a problem. Both studies, however, share a flaw that is more fundamental than any of these minute details…

Problem 3 (the big one): Correlation is not Causality!

Yes! The chicken or egg dilemma. You knew it would be coming back! The truth of the matter is that all surveys share this same weakness. Surveys, often academically termed “cross-sectional studies,” can tell us who is doing what but not why. Jeffery Goldstein, in testimony before congress, stated the fundamental problem with cross-sectional surveys: “Correlation is not causality, no matter how tempted one may be to argue otherwise.” (Goldstein 2000, 4)

Here’s the problem: we have no idea whether people who have addictive personalities just tend to be drawn to MMORPGs or if MMORPGs themselves are addictive. How can we resolve this?

A solution?

When Dr. Jeffery Goldstein, of University of Utrecht, testified before the US Senate, he focused around whether virtual violence was likely to result in real world violence. His conclusion was that there is not near enough evidence to support this claim. Five years later, Douglas Gentile prepared a literature review for the National Institute on Media and the Family. His report, once again, focusing around violence, but also addressed study methodology. His insights are very useful.

According to Gentile, there are three major types of studies (Gentile 2005, 7) which I believe can be narrowed down to just two. The first type of study is cross sectional surveys, which attempt to get answers from as many people as possible. The second type is a laboratory study that takes a few participants and carefully observes them.

A survey is able to get quantitative results. It can show correlation but not causality. On the other hand, a lab study is able to prove (at least somewhat) that one thing caused another in these cases. Therefore, in order to solve the Chicken and Egg dilemma, I need to find an experimental study.

Breakthrough!

I was researching at the Life Sciences Library at the University of Texas (go Horns!) when I stumbled upon a study from Joshuah M. Smyth, who is in the Department of Psychology at Syracuse University. His study was entitled “Beyond Self-Selection in Video Game Play.” Basically, his laboratory design was made to rule out pre-existing conditions that could cause addiction to the game.

Imagine your one of the hundred participants that were selected to be in Smyth’s study. You’re 18-20 years old. When you sign the liability waver form, you think that you just might become the next Incredible Hulk when they inject you with green radioactive goo. You breath a sigh of relief as you are informed that this is an experiment being run by the psychology, not the nuclear, department. You exhale with joy as you’re informed that you will get to play video games and be monitored for a month! But here’s the hitch: you have to play the type of game that you’re assigned. And it had to be an unfamiliar type of game.

This was what made Smyth stick out to me. His study assigned participants to play a type of video game that they had no previous experience with. This rules out the possibility that they had a pre-existing “addictive personality” that lead them to choose to play MMOs. So what did they find regarding video game play and addiction?

The results of the Smyth’s inquiry where published in October of last year. He said that the MMORPG players where significantly different from other players. They enjoyed the game more, but that enjoyment came at a price:

“The MMORPG group differed significantly from other groups after 1 month, reporting more hours spent playing, worse health, worse sleep quality, and greater interference in “real-life” socializing and academic work. … MMORPGs represent a different gaming experience with different consequences than other types of video games and appear to pose both unique risks and benefits from their use.” (Smyth 2007, 717)

And thereby the results of the cross-sectional studies mentioned above were verified by experimental testing. Smyth’s study helps us to say with more confidence that we have answered the “chicken and egg” dilemma regarding video games.

Conclusion

So what? Why should anyone who doesn’t have a Ph.D. care about these studies? Here’s the point that I want to make by showing you all this evidence. While some people certainly are more addiction prone, games can also be designed to be addiction prone. We cannot completely blame the player as many gaming companies contend, because games can be, and are, designed to be addictive.

If you think this may be the case for you or a loved one, please take our free addiction test.

Resources

Endnote: When I refer to “literature,” I’m not talking about that subject in school. I mean the body of written works on the subject of gaming. When I talk about MMOs, I mean Massive Multiplayer Online games. Finally, MMORPG (now that’s a horrible acronym, hu?) stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games.

Goldstein, Jeffrey. “Effects of Electronic Games on Children.” Testimonial Statement to US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Mar. 2000. commerce.senate.gov (no longer available).

Gentile, Douglas A. “Examining the Effects of Video Games from a Psychological Perspective.” National Institute on Media and the Family Nov. 2005. http://www.mediafamily.org/research/Gentile_NIMF_Review_2005.pdf.

Ng, Brian D. and Peter Wiemer-Hastings. “Addiction to the Internet and Online Gaming.” CyberPsychology & Behavior 8.2 (2005): 110-113. (accessed via Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Publishers).

Smyth, Joshua M. “Beyond Self-Selection in Video Game Play: An Experimental Examination of the Consequences of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game Play.” Cyberpsychology & Behavior 10.5 (2007): 717-721. (accessed via Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers)

Yee, Nicholas. “Ariadne.” Oct. 2002. NickYee.com. http://www.nickyee.com/hub/addiction/addiction.pdf.

Cyberspace must be running in its own time zone. What starts as “just a few more minutes to finish this level” soon becomes an hour. When Olivia and Kurt Bruner kept hearing this from their son while he was playing games, they set out to discover the problem. They concluded that video games are like “the digital drug” (Bruner and Bruner xxi).

Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) games are especially similar to drugs; not in their chemical makeup, but in the way they affect the young brain. MMO may as well stand for a Minor’s Massive Obsession because of the addiction it can become for many minors who find virtual reality more fulfilling than modern reality. In a way gaming also resembles alcohol. It isn’t evil, and actually can be beneficial, but can easily be overdone.

Contents

Definitions:
• Addictive or Not Addictive… That is the Question
• A Nasty Acronym with a Nasty Side

The Problem of Addiction:

• Pixels… or People?
• Tossing Schoolwork for the Game?
• Why Work Out when I can be a Digital Athlete in Seconds?
• Am I Ruining Reality for Virtual Reality?

Why Games are Addictive:

• The Digital Drug?
• Fast Food Fulfillment
• Risky Playtime

References

Addictive or Not Addictive… That is the Question

The pillar upon which the case for gaming addiction rests is the definition of addiction. Addiction is an overused word in modern language. Its meaning has become ambiguous at best.

The modern mind immediately thinks of some homeless looser who can’t hold a job because he is hooked on drugs. This mind is certain that a person who plays video games fourteen hours per day is addicted but isn’t sure where to draw the line in cases that aren’t as severe. At the same time, gamers often use “addictive” as a synonym of fun.”

Nicholas Yee, one of the foremost psychological experts on online games, provides a more objective, though not perfect, definition: “a recurring behavior that is unhealthy or selfdestructive which the individual has difficulty ending” (Yee 1). The only problem is that it lacks any definition of what is “destructive” and contains no specific median through which addiction may be measured.

For the purposes of this paper, addiction will be defined in terms of time. If an individual habitually spends time on an activity such that it interferes with time that is necessary for other more important activities, it’s safe to say that this individual is addicted. Therefore, the test for online video game addiction becomes whether time spent playing MMOs or MMORPGs interferes with other more important activities such as schoolwork or sleep.

A Nasty Acronym with a Nasty Side

MMORPG (how’s that for a nasty acronym?) spells out Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Some examples of these games are Dungeons and Dragons, EverQuest, which is sometimes jokingly called “NeverRest” because of its addictive nature, and Second Life. These games literally give players a “second life” and another role. They become problematic when the fantasy role becomes the player’s main role.

Even though only about one in ten gamers play an MMORPG, they’re the most likely to become addicted (Khan 4). A survey performed by Yee found that 65% of these gamers (ages 12-17) would label themselves as addicted to the game (Yee 3). The next question would be whether they truly are addicted by this paper’s definition.

Pixels… or People?

The first stop in testing for adolescent addiction was the subject of a 2004 editorial by Brent Staples, who holds a doctorate in behavioral sciences. Does online play interfere with the interactions players have with other people?

Yee’s study on the subject, which relied on the participant’s honesty, showed that the majority of MMORPG players don’t think their habits interfere with their social lives, academic performance, or health (Yee 6). There is quite a bit of reason to doubt their word. According to Staples, studies have shown that the amount of time spent with family was halved for every hour spent online (Staples 71).

Not everyone is negatively affected by online gaming, just like not everyone is affected by alcohol. Most of the scientific literature, however, has concluded that quite a significant number of adolescents not only grow anti-social, but also neglect school and even their health to play the game.

Tossing Schoolwork for the Game?

Many studies have negatively correlated performance in school to time spent gaming (Gentile 17-19). There is no wonder because when students spend time gaming, they can’t spend that time on homework. The recent study from Hope Cummings and Elizabeth Vandewater found that male gamers spent 30% less time reading than their non-gaming counterparts and that female gamers spent 34% less time doing homework (Cummings and Vandewater 688).

This is not to say that school and technology should never be mixed. According to Douglas Gentile’s literature review, studies have found that students who use computers actually have greater academic success, but those who use the computer for gaming purposes lost that success (Gentile 18).

These studies specifically dealt with younger students, but it’s clear that gaming habits also translate into problems in college. A survey from the Pew Research Center questioned students of higher education regarding gaming and schoolwork. The results were startling. Ten percent of the survey’s respondents admitted to playing specifically to avoid schoolwork. Even more disturbing were the unintended consequences. Almost half of the respondents to this study said that playing games kept them from studying (Jones et al. 1).

Why Work Out when I can be a Digital Athlete in Seconds?

By the definition in this paper, gaming could be called an addiction if it significantly interferes with an adolescent’s health. This is because health takes time, time many obsessed gamers don’t have. Sleep is a great example. About half of young MMORPG players (ages 12-22) admit to loosing sleep in order to play the game (Yee 2).

The American Medical Association has also expressed concern regarding the overuse of video games in general and its effects on health. According to the twelfth report at their 2007 meeting, excessive gaming has been linked to epileptic seizures, obesity, and musculoskeletal diseases (Khan 3). “Indeed, there is even a form of tendinitis named ‘Nintendinitis,’ caused by repeatedly pressing game-controller buttons with one’s thumb” (Gentile 20). All of these health problems are directly related to the time spent playing video games. Addicted MMO gamers will invariably game even at the cost of their health.

Am I Ruining Reality for Virtual Reality?

Ignoring one’s social life, schoolwork, and health in order to play with a flashing screen clearly isn’t logical. Digital games certainly have their place, but they have stepped out of it in the lives of many modern adolescents. That would actually include mine. I wasn’t a “hard-core” gamer, but I certainly have let games get in the way of more important jobs. This experience left me with a question: what is so addictive about moving lights? I found two answers. Gaming, especially online, is both chemically stimulating and emotionally fulfilling.

The Digital Drug?

Most adults have no idea what is going on when they see their adolescents being lost in the online game. Often puzzled parents simply dismiss it as “just a game.” Yet, for many addicted teens, it’s more than just a game. It’s “life” in the same chemical way that cocaine is “life” to a drug addict.

Video games actually release many of the same chemicals in the brain that drug addicts thrive on. The first study to track a neurological chemical known as dopamine in the human brain using a PET scan was conducted in 1998 by British scientists who used video games as their experimental variable. The results they found indicated that the amount of surplus dopamine, the same chemical stimulated by cocaine, doubled when their subjects played a video game (Koepp et al. 267). This evidence led Dan Costa, an editor at the pro-gaming publication PC Magazine, to conclude:

“Video games are not like cocaine, your brain thinks they are cocaine. And if you doubt that, try to take the controller out of [my son’s] hands before he reaches a save point.” (Costa)

Fast Food Fulfillment

Addiction to online video games is not only a chemical phenomenon; it can also be an emotional attraction. In a very real sense, MMOs artificially fulfill the basic goal of adolescents: to grow up.

Take, for example, the situation of the Bruners provided at the beginning of this paper. The Bruners finally wrote a book for parents on the gaming experience. They state that the “role playing elements of video games tend to draw a child back repeatedly, in part because the child has adopted a temporary replacement identity” (Bruner and Bruner 51). For adolescents specifically, the identities they play in many MMOs give them a thrill of adulthood without the risks of adulthood.

Risky Playtime

While playing an MMO certainly isn’t evil, this seemingly innocent pass time can put reality at risk. Role playing games are super-sized versions of what we think reality should be. Compared to the glittering world of Second Life, “real life” is rather dull. Compared to the dopamine rush of EverQuest, schoolwork is boring. MMO addiction often throws adolescent lives by the wayside, promising to replace them with the lives of digital heroes. It certainly can be like a digital drug.

References

Bruner, Olivia, and Kurt Bruner. Playstation Nation. New York: Center Street, 2006.

Costa, Dan. “Turn It Off, Kids!” Editorial. PCMag.com 4 April 2007. 8 Mar. 2008 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2109568,00.asp.

Cummings, Hope M., and Elizabeth A. Vandewater. “Relation of Adolescent Video Game Play to Time Spent in Other Activities.” Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 161.7 (2007): 684-689. 8 Mar. 2008 http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/161/7/684.

Gentile, Douglas A. “Examining the Effects of Video Games from a Psychological Perspective.” National Institute on Media and the Family Nov. 2005. 7 Mar. 2008 http://www.mediafamily.org/research/Gentile_NIMF_Review_2005.pdf.

Jones, Steve, et al. “Let the Games Begin.” Pew Internet and American Life Project 6 Jul. 2003. 7 Mar. 2008 http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_College_Gaming_Reporta.pdf.

Khan, Mohamed K. “Emotional and Behavioral Effects of Video Games and Internet Overuse.” 2007 AMA Annual Meeting. Council on Science and Public Health, June 2007. 8 Mar. 2008 http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/467/csaph12a07.doc.

Koepp, M. J., et al. “Evidence for Striatal Dopamine Release During a Video Game.” Nature 393.6682 (1998): 266-268.

Staples, Brent. “What Adolescents Miss When we Let Them Grow up in Cyberspace.” The McGraw-Hill Reader. Ed. Gilbert H. Muller. 9th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006. 70-71.

Yee, Nicholas. “Ariadne.” Oct. 2002. NickYee.com. 7 Mar. 2008 http://www.nickyee.com/hub/addiction/addiction.pdf.

Just Pray NO! Ltd. mainly focuses on drug and alcohol addiction, but I think that praying for those held captive by addiction to video games is also appropriate.

For Christians specifically, it is important not only to avoid addiction, but also to avoid idolatry. Video games can very easily turn into idolatry if we place them about God. No one else can tell you if gaming has become an idol, because it is a matter of the heart, but they can help you realize it for yourself. Be honest with yourself and answer some of these questions. What do you think?

• Have you played games and not done your (school)work?
• Do you spend more time in the digital world or spending quality time with your family?
• How about prayer? Do you spend more time praying or thinking about gaming?
  As Christians, we are supposed to pray continually. (1 Thessalonians 5:17) Are you praying while playing games?
• If you could play games or read your Bible which you you most likely do? What do you spend the most time doing?
• When you talk to friends, do you talk more about God and his word or about digital games?
• Since we as Christians are not to use our freedom such that it causes others to stumble, (1 Corinthians 8:9) we also needs to ask: have your gaming habits ever influenced anyone else to spend too much gaming?

For those who find themselves making an idol out of games and for their families, there is a way out. We have said that there really is no one size fits all solution, which is true, but there is a one size fits all beginning. That beginning is prayer. Everyone who wishes to conquer any addiction needs to start by going their knees. (and then continue praying)

I could conclude with some profound statement, but I really think God said it best:

“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

~1 Corinthians 10:13, NIV

Amen? Now please join us in prayer.

This particular article was in response to a letter he received. The letter writer had already been convinced that his sons had created an idol of Playstations. This father’s question was about how to win his sons over to living a life apart from the Playstation nation.

You may have heard Thomas say: “Its easier to get the game out of your home than it is to get it out of your gamer’s heart.” Mr. Pearl has some advise on how to accomplish both: “‘Never take something away without replacing it with something more interesting and better.’”

“Rather than doing a police raid and confiscating the wicked thing, provide them with a more interesting alternative that will cause them to choose to walk away from the altar of digital deity.”

Some creative examples are listed:

“It may be that they do not find anything as fun as punching buttons and looking at a flashing screen. But I know some things that will get their attention—a day shooting guns, camping, fishing, hunting, fixing up an old pickup truck for them to drive when they get old enough—taking it out to the country on a Saturday and letting them drive just a little on the back roads. A normal ten-year-old will drop a Playstation to sit behind a real wheel and feel the power of the gas pedal. Skateboarding, paintball battles, rappelling down cliffs, making bows and arrows, and throwing knives and tomahawks are just a few of the radical things that will get a kid’s attention. You just need to think outside of your own box.”

As someone who was a ten-year-old at one point, he’s right. For me, it was speech and debate that really got my attention, I found that once you get the hang of it, research and public speaking can create a rush comparable to the one gamers experience. I’m serious. It’s addictive and productive.

Being a former gamer myself, I consider this to be true “Pearls” of wisdom. But don’t just take my word for it, read it for yourself.

Update: New Link for the Article entitled “Playstation” from the December 2007 edition of NGJ.